How to prepare to deregister your child from a UK school

So you think you want to deregister your child from a UK school?

In the last few months, the blog “How to Deregister Your Child from School” has become very popular. In fact, it’s our 3rd most popular blog post!

Since then, we’ve received countless emails from parents asking about the implications of deregistering from a UK school as well as the process. 

We’ve been asked:
How to deregister my child?
Can I deregister my child from a UK school?

And because you’re still not sure, you’re also asking:
Can I re-register my child after I’ve deregistered from a UK school?
Can my child obtain GCSEs or graduate from University after I’ve deregistered them?

All of these questions are great to get the ball rolling as you prepare to make this decision. (and the answers can be found within this deregistration blog series).

However, they are not the only important things to consider when looking at the home-education/home-schooling route. 

This blog will outline a few key things to consider prior to the deregistration process. (But if you’re ready to deregister, click here. If you’ve already done so, read this blog here.)

Let’s hop in –

First: It’s important to know the purpose of off-rolling. Is it a short-term decision or a long-term one?

You may be wondering, can I re-register my child in a UK school after they’ve been deregistered? The short answer is yes. 

It’s important to note that when you take your child off the school’s attendance role, that position within the school is now ‘up for grabs’ and may no longer be there when you wish to re-register. 

While not all schools have a waiting list, some do and it’s imperative that you’re aware of your options if/when you decide to register your child again. 

Second: Are you intending to home-educate or home-school?

What’s the difference between home education and home schooling? The main difference is whether you opt to follow the National Curriculum or not.
When you home educate, you’re opting to create a bespoke curriculum for your child. This can be with the support of tutors and home education centres, or it can be done independently. The main thing is that your child will be learning through their experiences, interests, and daily life. The children may participate in co-creating the curriculum. They may even have a less structured approach (no dedicated time slot for English, Maths, Science, etc). Project based learning is a great home education activity. 

When you home school, your family will be sticking to the National Curriculum. This, again, may be done with the support of home schooling tutors. This is often the choice because you might wish to continue the traditional paths of GCSEs, A-Levels and or apprenticeships, but at a different pace. You may be opting to slow the process down and to focus on one or a few GCSEs at a time; You may want to provide your child the ability to focus on core subjects without the pressure of the others; Your child may have missed a lot of school due to illness and needs to focus on core subjects with personal tutoring.

The reasons are varied, and they are personal. Therefore understanding how to prepare for deregistering your child from a UK school is an important step. 

Third: What form of support do you and your family have for this new journey?

Taking this step is big and will be an adjustment for everyone. As a parent, you’ll need to have a good idea of the reasons why you’re deregistering and the hoped for outcome. This will help you to make the big decisions:

• Which home education provision would I like to partner with? Is it a total handover of responsibility for my child’s education, or do I want to approach this together and also share ideas? 
• Will my child be joining any home-education provision centers? If so which ones? What days? How will they get to and fro?
• Would my child benefit from a well-being mentor to aid in the transitioning phase? 
• Do we need more serious well-being support? Have we contact CAMHS? Are we hoping for something to be delivered sooner and less clinically?

Answering these questions can also help you zero in on who you’d like to seek out for support.

Fourth: What transitioning support does my child need?

All children will react to the new routine differently. In our experience as home-education tutors and wellbeing mentors, there are two extremes to be mindful of:

1. The student who thinks deregistration means complete freedom and believes they no longer have any responsibility or obligation to show up and try new (at times challenging) things.
2. The student who gets too involved in their learning, that they become obsessive and isolate themselves. They tend to push friends who are not home educated away and don’t feel like they belong to a community anymore. 

To avoid either extreme, it’s imperative that families are able to discuss and plan their vision for the future, what kinds of responsibilities will exist, what expectations, and where they’ll connect with others to stay part of a community. 

Concluding thoughts on how to prepare to deregister your child from a UK school

In conclusion, the decision to deregister is not one to take lightly. In fact, we’ve connected with more parents on this matter than anything else over the past year. So if you’re family is on the sidelines and not quite sure, get in touch. Bettering Youth would be happy to connect you with tutors who home educate and wellbeing mentors who can support students with big feelings and transitions. If you’re happy to move forward, be sure to download our checklist for deregistering.